David Talbot’s Season of the Witch Selected as 11th Annual “One City One Book

San Francisco Public Library is thrilled to announce that the 11th Annual One City One Book selection is David Talbot’s Season of the Witch, an extraordinary telling of the colorful and often dark history of San Francisco from 1967 to 1982.

Library bookshelves will be stocked with fresh copies of Season of the Witch in September – or, read it over the summer and be ready for all the fun events happening this fall! Citywide programming will take place throughout September and October.

Mr. Talbot will be making multiple appearances in the fall, including readings, discussion panels, school visits and more. In addition, there will be tours, book discussions and other presentations, with our program partners. Please watch the complete program schedule, available in September.

From the early days of the Summer of Love in the Haight, through years of murder and mayhem, the city evolved. Through extensive research and personal interviews, Talbot captures a 15-year history never before told in this level of detail. The stories lend themselves to opportunities to revisit this history through exhibits, music, politics and more.

One City One Book: San Francisco Reads is an annual citywide literary event that encourages members of the San Francisco community to read the same book at the same time and then discuss it in book groups and at events throughout the City. By building bridges between communities and generations through the reading and, most importantly, the discussion of one book, we hope to help to make reading a lifelong pursuit and to build a more literate society.

Sponsors for One City One Book include the San Francisco Public Library and Friends of the San Francisco Public Library. The program is also supported by many bookstore partners, program partners and media sponsors, including Green Apple Books, Green Arcade Books, Books Inc., California Historical Society, Northern California Independent Booksellers Association, San Francisco History Center and more.

David Talbot is an author, journalist, and media producer; and now, a publisher.

He is co-founder of Salon magazine, and former editor of Image and Mother Jones magazines. He has written forTime magazine, The New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and other publications. In addition to Season of the Witch, he is author of Brothers: The Hidden History of the Kennedy Years and Devil Dog: The Amazing True Story of the Man Who Saved America.

The San Francisco Planning and Urban Renewal Association (SPUR) produced a report entitled “Prologue to Action” arguing that, to enable the city to compete effectively, city government should influence growth so that San Francisco’s population “will move closer to ‘standard white Anglo-Saxon Protestant’ characteristics.” (Hirten, Farrell, and Weese 1966)

It’s, as always, the prospect of a “provincial” SF versus a world-class SF. What SPUR wants is to take tax and fee payer money and give it to … SPUR, so it then can advocate spending more tax and fee payer money on whatever flavor of the month development program its members stand to make money from. Why does SFGov give any money at all to SPUR?

What’s actually changed at SPUR the past four decades, aside from them saying that the UR in SPUR no longer stands for “Urban Renewal?”

Effective Sept. 5, library computer users will have greater access to Internet-enabled computers throughout the library system. Computer users will be able to reserve up to two one-hour sessions per day, as opposed to the current limit of one hour per day. The second hour is contingent upon availability. The increased time is in response to patron need and popular demand, and provides better service and utilization of library resources.

“The Library is dedicated to free and equal access to information,” said City Librarian Luis Herrera. “We believe that these additional hours will better serve our library patrons.”

In addition, most of the Main Library’s Internet Express computers, will have increased time limits, from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Free Wi-Fi is available for both card holders and non-card holders at the Main Library and all branches for those who wish to bring their own devices. In addition, library patrons may be able to borrow a laptop computer for in-library use at branches when desktop computers are not available.

All library users are encouraged to apply for a free library card. Use of library computers is free to card holders, and, as part of the initiative to provide more access to our library users, Library staff will waive the lost card fee and issue a free replacement card through June 2015.”

Oh, so here’s what the national media doesn’t know about the sainted San Francisco Planning Commission:

It’s a political organization run by the Mayor of San Francisco.

So, is it really”thoughtful,” “considered,” and “professional?”

Perhaps not.

Here’s an example for you, national MSM.

The SFMTA is similar to Planning Commission except the SFMTA takes care of transit in SF.

The SFMTA recently had a big push to turn on parking meters on Sundays instead of having them flash “FREE PARKING” from Saturday night to Monday morning every week. (They had studies and everything.) So then people had to pay for parking meters on Sundays. Fine.

But then the Mayor of San Francisco said he didn’t like having meters charge for parking on Sundays. And then the SFMTA voted, unanimously, to make Sunday parking free again less than a year after deciding to charge for Sunday parking.

So similar things happen with the Planning Commish? Yes – it;s the same dynamic.

So, IRL, the SFMTA and the Planning Commission are captives of the Mayor of San Francisco. So that’s why builders donate money to and say nice things about the Mayor of San Francisco.

If you aren’t aware of this, national MSM, then you don’t understand what happened with the 8 Washington proposal, just saying.

Somebody who tried something like this a little while back was Eve Batey. Her online-only effort didn’t work out.

And speaking of online-only, Hoodline (mostly covering “Divisadero, Hayes Valley, Lower Haight, Upper Haight,” mostly) comes to mind as there’s a lot of overlap there. Liz has carved out an area that we can call District 5 Less The Inner Sunset.

Who’s taken notice already? How about D5 Supervisor London Breed** with her City Hall column and SFPD Park Station Captain Gregory Corrales with his Police Beat?

And add to that an alphabet soup of SFGov departments, including advertisers with big ads such as the Department of Elections and the SF Public Library.

Check it out if you can. You’ll see a bit about Jimmy’s Old Car Picnic (1988-2013) that takes a decidedly anti-RPD position.

San Francisco City College Chancellor, Students, Classified Employees And Faculty Take On The Problems Identified By The Community College Accreditation Commission

(SAN FRANCISCO, CA)— Over 100 community members, classified employees, students, faculty and administrators are coming together to take concrete action to address identified problems at the college. Together, they are looking at the community college accreditation commission’s list of over 300 items that need to be fixed to maintain accreditation. On the list is one billion dollars’ worth of deferred maintenance. The alliance, known as “We Are CCSF”, will take on some hard labor of pulling weeds, recycling, composting, window washing and other activities on Saturday, Nov. 2, at 10 AM.

“We need to do everything in our collective power to ensure that City College stays open and accredited for current and future generations of students”, says Jill Kersey a classified employee at SF City College and a member of SEIU Local 1021. “This is an all-hands-on-deck moment in the history of our college and our city. Together, we can do what must be done to help repair, rebuild, and restore our college.”

When: SATURDAY, Nov. 2, 2013, 10 AM

Where: City College of San Francisco, Ocean Campus [outside of Rosenberg Library]

“We Are CCSF” alliance includes community members, classified employees, students, administrators and faculty, including Students Making a Change, SEIU 1021 and Coleman Advocates. The mission for “We Are CCSF” is to “Repair what is broken at CCSF, Rebuild the college to become a high functioning institution once again, and Restore public faith in the college’s capacity to effectively serve the people of San Francisco”.

The Asian Art Museum has installed two monumental Japanese bronze lion sculptures on granite plinths outside the museum’s front entrance on Larkin Street. Recently acquired by the museum through a donation from longtime supporter Marsha Vargas Handley in memory of Raymond G. Handley, the 800 lb. sculptures date to the late nineteenth century and are similar to the majestic guardian lions typically placed opposite each other outside Buddhist temples and Shinto shrines.

The practice of adorning public buildings with sculptures of lions is a time-honored custom in the US–the New York Public Library and the Art Institute of Chicago are noteworthy examples. The granite plinths outside the Asian Art Museum may well have been intended to support sculptures of lions when the building was originally built in 1916 to serve as the San Francisco Main Public Library. The museum is now following that longstanding tradition–this time with a uniquely Asian spin–giving a sneak peek of the treasures held inside.

The lion on the museum’s south side has its left paw resting on a Buddhist jewel, with an openwork design of sculpted peonies, a flower closely associated with lions. The south lion’s mouth is open, and the north lion’s is closed, symbolizing the sounds and spirit of the Japanese pronunciation of the first and last letters of the Sanskrit alphabet: “A” is pronounced with the mouth open, and “Un” with the mouth closed.

Physical Description: These lions’ enormous size—nearly five feet tall and six feet long— and standing positions are unusual. Paired guardian lions outside shrines today are often shown seated or crouching, and most are made of stone, wood, or, less commonly, ceramic. This pair of large sculptures also stands out in material (bronze). Relatively few bronze guardian lions from before World War II survive, due in part to mandatory metal collections ordered by the Japanese government during the war.

Conservation: The lions have undergone extensive conservation treatment, including repairs to the feet that fasten them to a new, customized base—a strategy of earthquake preparedness. Several layers of protective coating were applied to resist weathering of Ceremonial Unveiling: Details for a forthcoming ceremonial unveiling event will be announced soon.”

London Breed – She was born in District Five. She was born in District Five. She was born in District Five. One imagines she’s still turbo-pissed at Mayor Ed Lie for not appointing her earlier this year. She’s raised the most money and has the support of Kamala Harris and Willie Brown.

Christina Olague – Pronounced “oh law gee” with a hard “g?” News to me. (Does she have a cold or is that her voice? Wow.)

“Hello. My name is, uh, Christina Olague. I’m Supervisor of this District. I was appointed in January. And I’m very thrilled and excited to be, uh, serving the community as the district Supervisor.”

And oh, here’s the big pitch for supporters, which I’ll tell you I didn’t see any:

“We need your presence!!! Please come out to hold up signs, wear your Tee Shirts and pass out literature. All the Candidates will be there. We want them to see strong support for Christina Olague. Got Questions? Call 415-724-0136 – Shelley B. Bell”

So, the Olague campaign wants the other candidates to see Olague has lots of support? OK fine, if that’s the way you want to do it.

Anyway, she’s a big fat SELLOUT and that’s why she got appointed over a moderate like London Breed.

And oh, she’s lying about that whole perjury issue with the Mayor and Ross Mirkarimi. Oh well.

Thea Selby - “I am super happy to be here…” Apparently, running for Supe is “hecka more fun” than you can imagine. And, apparently, everybody should consider running.

Julian Davis – “There are pro-development interests that are controlling the agenda of City Hall.”

This was the first attack against the Interim Supe during this forum.

“How do they get away with it? I’ll tell you – they get away with it by choosing your leaders for you. Over the past two years in San Francisco we have seen an appointed Mayor, an appointed District Attorney, an appointed Sheriff, and an appointed District Five Supervisor. Ask yourself is that’s participatory democracy the way we envisioned it? The answer is that it is not.”

Hope Johnson –

“…if those people are really representing you or if they are merely selling out to the highest bidder. And as Supervisor, I would hope to continue to ensure that government acts in our best interests and try to curb the abuse of authority some of which you’ve heard Mr. Davis talk about just a few minutes ago.”

The reason for that is because she’s already been appointed to the job.

The reason for that is because she sold out her “progressive” values in order to get appointed. Remember RUN ED RUN? That was Christina Olague.

And hey, remember that whole perjury thing involving, speak of the Devil, Mayor Ed Lie and Commissioner Debra Walker? Remember how one protagonist spoke clearly and freely at City Hall and the other panicked and ran away to hide like a stupid cow? That runner and hider was Christina Olague, who said she might have to recuse herself from the Ross Mirkarimi vote due to, due to what? Due to somebody saying something? I don’t get that.

Anywho, there are institutional reasons why it benefits all parties concerned to host/attend this shindig, so here it comes.

All the deets:

AUGUST 8 Meeting Reminder

Dear District 5 Democrat,

Don’t miss out. On Wednesday, August 8, we’ll be hosting the first debate for the District 5 candidates for Supervisor from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM at the Park Branch Library in the Haight.

The D5 Dem Club will also be making our endorsement for Supervisor. All registered club members and Democrats who have attended at least one prior meeting in the past year will have an opportunity to vote for their top-3 preferred candidates at this important discussion.

The debate and endorsement meeting will be held at the Park Branch Library in the Haight, 1833 Page St. The debate will begin promptly at 6:30pm, but members will be able to cast their endorsement vote at any time during the meeting. Voting will end promptly at 8:30pm and votes will be tallied at that time.

All registered candidates have been invited to participate, and once again we want to thank all the members who have join our club and made introductions to our members.